Tile-setting.



TILE SETTING.

(Application led July 1S, 1900.1

(no modem Y \mmmmmmm WIWI/55125 UNITED STATES PATENT Trios.

HERMAN C. MUELLER AND KARL LANGENBECK, OF ZANESVILLE, OHIO.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 664,169, dated December 18, 1900.

Application filed July 13, 1900. Serial No. 23,457. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern:

States of America, and residents of Zanesville, in the county of Muskingum and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tile-Setting, of Which the following is a specification.

The object of our invention is a tile door, wall, or ceiling which will not crack either from the settling ofthe building or from jarring and which may be applied upon ordinary fioors or Walls without the application of heavy substructures. This object is accomplished by forming the backing of flexible tough material, which while it holds the tile tenaciously in place, yet adjusts itself to a change of the position of the iioor.

Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view trans-- verse to the joists of a floor, with the backing and the tile embodying our invention laid thereon. Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail view showing the backing, the tile set therein, and the grouting for finishing up the joints be tween the tiles. Fig. 3 is a detail view of part of a slab composed of the backing and the tile with a screw for attaching it to a Wall.

In Fig. l are shown joists d and floor a, constructed in the ordinary manner. Upon the iioor is laid our backing or foundation B, which may consist of a mixture of sawdust, silicate of soda, and whitingtirmly pressed 'and rammed together and spread evenly upon the floor. To form the surface, pieces c of clay tile, glass tile, mosaic tesserae, or other material of a hard resisting character are then pressed into this plastic material, so that some of it'ri'ses up inthe joints between the pieces. Afer'the'til'e are so set, to finish the floor the joints that were not filled by the backing material rising'up in them are filled with grouting b of the same or of a similar iiexible material. After standing several hours the backing sets, forming a iiexible tough foundation, which holds the tile firmly in place, yet adjusts itself to any change in the iioor due to settling of the building without the cracking and consequent disintegrant characteristic of this class of floors heretofore in use that have 'been formed with rigid backings. This backing also undergoes jars and consequent vibration without cracking, so that with it tile' iioors may be applied to elevators, boats, and other structures in which tile floors hereto# fore could not be used successfully because of the vibration to which they are subjected. The iioor thus constructed is of comparatively small depth and little Weight, so that it may be laid upon floors of ordinary construction Without the necessity of changing them or of strengthening their substructure.

For Walls and ceilings we prefer slabs, as shown in Fig. 3, composed of the backing and the tiles set therein, which may be attached in place by means of nails or screws D or by means of an adhesive cement. After the slabs are attached the joints may be grouted with a flexible material, as described. These slabs may also be used for doors, in this case being attached to the iioor of the building by screws or nails and having the joints between them grouted, as aforedescribed.

What We claim isl. The combination of a flexible cementitious backing combined with a surface made up of pieces of a material of a hard resisting nature bound together at the joints by a material similar to that of the backing, substantially as shown and described.

2. A floor or wall covering made up of a surface composed of pieces of a hard resisting material set into a backing which rises into the joints between the pieces and sets from a plastic to a flexible tough state, substantially as shown and described.

3. The process of forming a floor or Wall covering consisting in forming a backing of a material which sets from a plastic to a liexible tough state, of forming the surface thereon by pressing pieces of a hard resisting material into the backing so that it rises into the joints between the pieces and of then lilling in .the joints with a grouting of a flexible nature.

HERMAN C. MUELLER. KARL LANGENBECK.

Witnesses:

THOMAS H. WINsToN, GEO. J. MURRAY. 

